NEW ARRIVALS SET HEARTS IN A FLUTTER AT WELSH MOUNTAIN ZOO

The arrival of 4 new penguin chicks has been revealed at the Welsh Mountain Zoo.

The tiny Humboldt penguin chicks have set many hearts a flutter as they’ve made their first initial waddles out of the nest with cautious moves to explore their new home.

The 4 chicks, that have not yet been named, hatched over an 2 week period to mums Waddles, Fluffy and Yoshi and dads, Ziggy, Shell and Pudding. The feathered cuties are doing incredibly well having being kept a watchful eye on by keepers from the Zoo as well as their parents.

Jamie Toffrey, Marketing Officer at the Welsh Mountain Zoo said: “We are all thrilled by the arrival of our new feathered friends who are already much loved here at the Zoo. The early days and weeks of their arrival is always a nervous time but these hatchlings have developed and grown well and their prospects are really positive.”

The Zoo has a long history of keeping penguins dating back over four decades.

Jamie added: “We’ve housed penguins here for many years and have incredibly experienced keepers here for support. At the moment, we have 20 penguins at the Zoo plus the four new chicks so our group is growing steadily.”

Head Keeper, Michelle Pywell added: “It is heart-warming that we have continued our success with breeding Humboldt penguins. This is a bird that is only found around the coastline of Chile and Peru in South America and numbers have been declining in the wild. There are only 7,000-10,000 estimated to be left and are now endangered.

“Luckily our breeding pairs are now very experienced and we do not need to intervene by hand rearing. We do not interfere. All we do is offer food to the parent in the burrow who is incubating the eggs three times a day and when the chick hatches we take a “hatch weight” which is around 65-80 grams. We will weigh the chick again at three days old, by then if everything is going well then they will have doubled their weight to 130-160 grams.

“When they are around two years old they will go off to join a different collection where they will hopefully find their life partner as Humboldt penguins are monogamous and in many cases stay with the same partner for life. “

Visitors will start to be able to see the new penguins start to venture out into the pool any day now.